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New Research: CFOs Increasingly Aware Of Commercial Litigation Assets And Poised To Unlock More Value From Legal

Burford Capital, the leading global finance and asset management firm focused on law, today releases new independent research probing how CFOs and senior financial officers influence corporate legal departments, legal spend and their companies’ success in recovering value through affirmative recoveries.

Christopher Bogart, CEO of Burford Capital, commented: “CFOs bring a commercial mindset to other areas of the business—and the legal function should be no exception, particularly given the amount of working capital potentially at stake, measured not only in the many millions now spent on commercial claims but also the even greater opportunity costs of diverting corporate resources and the untapped opportunity to pursue valuable claims altogether.”

The research suggests that companies are on the cusp of a paradigm shift in how they approach legal assets, and that financial officers understand their value and have new opportunities to more fully leverage tools to unlock them.  Key findings from the research include:

Affirmative recovery and cost management programs are extensive—and ready for growth

  • 73% of financial officers report extremely/very extensive affirmative recovery programs, and 84% report extremely/very extensive legal cost management programs
  • 46% report a need for improvement in these programs

Companies have extensive opportunities to enhance liquidity

  • 75% of companies with over $1 billion in annual revenues reported unenforced judgments worth $20–$100 million in 2020
  • Companies with inadequate affirmative recovery programs are 27% more likely to leave money on the table

Financial officers have new ways to apply the same financial approach to legal as other business areas

  • Just 24% say they apply quantitative financial modeling to make decisions about litigation as they do in other areas of the business
  • 39% say litigation variables don’t lend themselves to quantitative analysis—revealing an untapped opportunity to utilize tools and partners to quantify legal risk

Bringing a commercial mindset to legal will reinforce more commercial behaviors—benefiting the business

  • 59% believe that pending litigations are assets because they represent future cash flow, even if they don’t show up on the balance sheet, and 56% believe that the legal department should have commercial targets
  • However, a significantly large percentage of financial officers aren’t yet bringing a commercial mindset to legal
  • Those who conduct quantitative analysis of litigation are significantly more likely to say that their companies need to place greater priority on their affirmative recovery programs—suggesting the kind of appetite for improved performance and financial innovation that leading companies value

The 2021 Legal Asset Report: A Survey of Finance Professionals can be downloaded on Burford’s web site and includes snapshots of energy, food, healthcare and other industries. Its findings are based on the online survey responses from 378 senior financial officers of companies with annual revenues of $50 million or more in the United States, the UK and Australia, conducted in March and April 2021 by Bauman Research and Consulting. Over half of respondents hold CFO titles and all are in roles that include knowledge of their companies’ litigation expenditures.

About Burford Capital
About Burford Capital Burford Capital is the leading global finance and asset management firm focused on law. Its businesses include litigation finance and risk management, asset recovery and a wide range of legal finance and advisory activities. Burford is publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: BUR) and the London Stock Exchange (LSE: BUR), and it works with companies and law firms around the world from its principal offices in New York, London, Chicago, Washington, Singapore and Sydney. For more information, please visit www.burfordcapital.com.

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Announcements Commercial Legal Innovation

Sentry Expands Free Funding Market Search for Litigators

By John Freund |

Sentry Funding’s free tool enabling litigators to instantly search the funding market on behalf of clients has been expanded.

Sentry’s free ‘decision in principle’ feature enables lawyers to evidence to clients that they have conducted a broad market search, even if funding is not ultimately taken out.

Having deployed £125m in funding across a range of case types, Sentry now has access to an even broader funding marketplace, covering 34 global jurisdictions. Finance is provided by 13 funders, five of which are members of the Association of Litigation Funders.

With the recent addition of Sentry’s first US-based funder, the US offering will now be expanding over the next few months. 

A faster process

Sentry has deployed the latest technology to make the search for funding even easier. 

  • The intuitive application process now only asks questions relevant to previous answers, saving lawyers time.
  • The commercial marketplace has been redeveloped with 63 new data points added to the funder criteria matrix - improving the accuracy of case / funder matching
  • Sentry has also begun building out its AI capabilities, starting with an automated auditing tool for live case progression audits. 

Tom Webster, chief executive officer at Sentry Funding, said:

‘By broadening our reach and speeding up the process, we’re making it even easier for lawyers to raise funding. We’re also giving litigators an easy way to show clients they have fully researched the market, rather than just approaching one or two funders. 

‘The service is free to use, so even if clients decide they do not ultimately want funding or if none is available for that case, for the lawyer, it makes sense to use our “decision in principle” feature, so they can put evidence on file that they did check the market.’

Sentry Funding is an SaaS (software as a service) technology provider that gives solicitors access to a diverse marketplace of litigation funders. It works with solicitors, funders and third-party providers to ensure claimants are getting the most efficient service for their funding needs. 

The Sentry Portal also acts as a case management system that runs a transparent digital case file for solicitors, funders, after-the-event insurance providers, barristers, cost lawyers and other relevant third parties.

Announcements Commercial

NorthWall Capital Hits €2.9 B AUM on Private Credit Momentum

By John Freund |

NorthWall Capital has rocketed past €2.9 billion in assets under management after pulling in an additional €1.6 billion of institutional capital in 2025 alone. The London-based alternative credit manager says the surge reflects allocators’ intensifying hunt for scaled, multi-strategy platforms as Europe’s banks retrench and borrowers seek bespoke sources of credit.

A press release from NorthWall Capital details first-close totals across four distinct strategies. The flagship Credit Opportunities fund secured €731 million—already eclipsing its prior vintage—while the newly launched Senior Lending vehicle raised $503 million, translating to roughly $750 million of deployable firepower once leverage is applied. Asset-Backed Opportunities collected €252 million for collateral-rich loans in sectors underserved by traditional lenders, and the specialist Legal Assets platform locked down $169 million to extend the firm’s law-firm lending programme.

Founder and CIO Fabian Chrobog said the fundraising validates “the consistency of our approach” and NorthWall’s ability to craft solutions that resonate with investors and counterparties alike. With headcount slated to hit 40 by year-end, the firm plans to lean further into complex, situational credit born of bank deleveraging, regulatory shifts and sponsors’ need for certainty of execution.

Announcements Commercial People Moves

Victory Park Expands Legal Credit Leadership with Maleson Promotion

By John Freund |

Victory Park Capital (VPC), a global alternative asset manager specializing in private credit, has announced that Justin Maleson will expand his role to Managing Director, co-heading the firm’s legal credit investment strategy. The promotion underscores VPC’s ongoing investment in its legal finance capabilities and follows Maleson’s initial appointment in 2024 as Assistant General Counsel.

An announcement from Victory Park Capital details Maleson’s new responsibilities, which include sourcing, analyzing, and managing investments across legal assets, while maintaining oversight of the firm’s legal operations. He joins Chad Clamage in co-leading the strategy, working alongside team members Hugo Lestiboudois and Andrew Pascal, under the continued oversight of VPC CEO and founder Richard Levy.

Maleson brings a strong background in litigation finance and commercial law to the position. Before joining VPC, he served as a director at Longford Capital, where he specialized in originating and managing litigation funding transactions. His earlier tenure as a litigation partner at Jenner & Block further deepened his exposure to complex legal matters, equipping him with the expertise needed to navigate the nuanced legal credit space.

VPC’s legal credit team emphasizes an asset-backed lending model, prioritizing downside protection and predictable income streams. The firm aims to capitalize on inefficiencies within the legal funding market by leveraging its internal expertise and broad network of relationships. With Maleson’s appointment, VPC signals its intent to further scale its legal credit strategy, positioning itself as a key player in the evolving legal finance sector.

Maleson’s elevation comes at a time of increasing sophistication in litigation finance, where experienced legal minds are playing a pivotal role in portfolio construction and risk management. As VPC bolsters its leadership, the move may foreshadow further institutionalization of legal asset investing and heightened competition in a maturing market segment.